Sunday, July 31st: "Greed and Gratitude"
First United Presbyterian Church
“Greed and Gratitude”
Rev. Amy Morgan
July 31, 2022
Luke 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me."
14 But he said to him, "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?"
15 And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."
16 Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly.
17 And he thought to himself, 'What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?'
18 Then he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
19 And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.'
20 But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'
21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."
The United States boasts more than 2.3 billion square feet of rentable storage space. That’s about the same area as the cities of Loveland and Ft. Collins combined. All that storage space is filled with clothes from the 80’s that will never fit or be in fashion again; collections of dishes and silver that will never serve food again; dark, heavy furniture that no one will ever use again; papers and receipts no one will ever need to see. The size of the average American house has doubled in the last 50 years, and 65 percent of people who rent a storage unit also have a garage. But we keep buying more stuff. And we don’t get rid of the stuff we have. We store it.
Why do we store it? Some of us think we are saving this stuff for others. We suffer from the illusion that someday our kids or grandkids will want our stuff. But many of us are beginning to discover, to our dismay, that no one wants our collection of spoons or Lladro figurines, great-grandma’s china or the dining table we’ve had since the early 70’s. We’re even finding we can’t give this stuff away anymore. Literally no one wants it: not our family, not even complete strangers. Things that meant so much to us, things infused with value and memory, things that tell us who we are, have absolutely no value to anyone else. But we keep storing them anyway.
Some of us store things because we think someday, we might need them. This is just as foolish an idea. I can give you a perfect example: I have a sewing machine stored on a shelf in my garage. To my credit, I have used it once in the last five years. But I am terrible at sewing and find it extremely stressful so this machine will never be needed with any regularity. We store skis long after we know our days of downhill sport are past. We store computers that pre-date the internet. We store books we quit reading because we didn’t like them and, for some reason, expect we’ll try them again later. I also have a box with all my dance shoes and leotards from my musical theatre days as though I’ll someday start tap dancing in the chancel as I magically revert to a size 6.
This is foolishness! But we do it. We keep building bigger barns, more storage units.
But, on the other hand, why shouldn’t we? We worked for this stuff. We earned this stuff. It is our stuff. We have every right to do whatever we please with it. Use it. Store it. Throw it away and buy more stuff. It’s our money we’re spending, garnered from our labor.
And even Jesus doesn’t dispute that. He doesn’t disparage hard work or despise well-managed wealth.
But he does love people. And hurts to see them suffer.
Just a few sentences before our reading today, Jesus says, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God's sight. But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Jesus doesn’t want our stuff to tell us who we are. He wants to be able to tell us who we are. Because he wants us to know our inherent value. He wants us to be at peace and not anxious. He wants us to know, “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.”
But at least one person in the crowd Jesus has been talking to has not been getting the message. A man demands that Jesus serve as estate attorney and give him a more fair share of his father’s inheritance. This is all the information we get about the situation because Jesus refuses to take up the case. He’d rather be a friend than a judge. But in Jewish law, a man’s inheritance was divided equally among his sons. Except, the eldest son would receive a double portion. This was all very standard practice. There wasn’t a whole lot of room for arbitration. But this man in the crowd clearly didn’t feel like his portion was enough. Maybe he wanted what the eldest son had. Maybe he thought one of his brothers got something nicer than he did. But the bottom line is: he got something, and wanted more. He didn’t think it was enough.
Jesus interprets this man’s attitude as one of greed and warns everyone in the crowd sternly to be on guard against every kind of greed. He uses language often applied to Jewish law, words that literally mean “observe” and “keep,” the same words we hear in Deuteronomy encouraging the Israelites to observe and keep God’s law “so that it may go well” for them in the land. In the same way one should carefully follow God’s law, one should avoid all tendencies toward greed. And not because God will smite you but because God wants what is best for you.
And what is best for us is knowing that our value does not have any correlation to the volume of our storage units.
Y’all who have been here awhile know that I don’t shy away from preaching about money and possessions. And, as I’ve told you before, that’s because Jesus talked about money and possessions more than just about any other topic. It’s one of his favorite things to talk about. And so it’s one of my favorite things to talk about, too.
Because money is never about money. It’s not about the stuff. It’s about what the stuff means, what the money does to us or through us.
Jesus desperately wants us to know our infinite value in the eyes of God. He wants us to experience unconditional love, love that doesn’t care about our wealth, status, or power; love that can’t be bought, sold, or earned in any way; love that will be with us and provide for us in every circumstance just as God provides beautiful clothes for the lilies and food for the ravens.
And we are so deaf to that message.
So Jesus tells the crowd this parable. And you have to listen really closely to understand what’s going on here. If you think this parable is an indictment against frugal saving or an edict for wealth redistribution, you’re missing the point. Listen to how Jesus tells this story:
First, "The land of a rich man produced abundantly.” Notice that the land is the one doing the producing. The bumper crop harvested here is not a return on investment, something the man deserves to take credit for. The land gets the verb; the land did the work. Also notice, the man was already rich. This isn’t a rags-to-riches, hit-the-lottery tale. This isn’t a condemnation of people who have very little wanting a little more. This is a man who is already rich getting richer by no means of his own other than owning land he likely inherited.
Second, the man is focused entirely on himself. He starts talking to himself, reasoning things out in an echo chamber of total self-centeredness. And in so doing, he creates a problem for himself. He has too much stuff. I’m going to say it again: this is a problem for him. The abundant provision of the land provokes a response, not of gratitude and joy, but of anxiety and more work.
But he’s a problem-solver, so he works it out (with himself) to spend money building bigger storehouses, wasting resources by tearing down the smaller buildings. He stores it all up so he can relax, eat, drink and be merry. He creates security for himself out of his storage units.
And then, he finds out that his strategically planned retirement is coming to an abrupt end. It’s really important to note here that the man’s death is not a punishment for his greed. God says to the man, “You fool!” Now, this is the only time this word, “fool” is found in the gospels. There are only three other instances of it in the whole New Testament, in Paul’s letters to the Corinthian church, a church with a super-power for conflict and misbehavior. God calls this man a fool, and this is strong language. But it isn’t a condemnation for willful behavior. It’s frustration with the man’s total ignorance. Ignorance of God’s grace and provision and love for him. Ignorance of his selfishness and isolation. Ignorance of his mortality. He’s foolish and ignorant, not bad and evil.
And then listen to how God informs the man that his life is over. God says, “your life is being demanded of you.” Now, the English translation of this really misses a lot. The Greek word for this phrase is found only one other time in the New Testament, earlier in Luke. And it has to do with repaying a loan. Jesus teaches, “Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.” God is telling this man that the loan that is his life has come due.
Jesus’s point about greed in this parable is that our very lives are not our own. They are a gracious gift, they are on loan from God.
And so it is with everything in our lives – the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the stuff we buy, the storage units we fill. It is all a grace, a gift, a loan for our brief span on earth.
But if we allow our lives to consist in the abundance of possessions, we risk forgetting that. If we store up treasures for ourselves to procure our own security, we risk forfeiting the peace that comes from resting in God’s gracious provision. If we truly want to relax, eat, drink, and be merry, we must begin with gratitude for what God has provided.
Greed is the opposite of gratitude. Greed convinces us that we are what we own, we’ve earned what we own, we deserve to enjoy what we own, and we deserve more. That is the lie greed tells us. And greed is a very convincing liar.
And the only antidote to greed is to tell it the truth. And the truth comes from gratitude. Numerous studies from around the world have shown that people who are grateful, who are content with their life as it is, people who enjoy the gifts they’ve been given, the relationships they are blessed with, and the work that they do, are the happiest people on earth. Telling greed the truth that our lives are not our own, everything is a grace from God, is the path to not just happiness, but to peace and life abundant.
I read numerous commentaries on this passage, and not one of them even tried to give a definitive answer to what it means to be “rich toward God.” Scholars find the phrase mysterious and sort of leave it up to the reader to interpret as they will. At times, the church has tried to define this as being generous toward the poor or, more often, toward the church.
But in the context of this story, I think it simply means to be grateful. To be “rich toward God” means to recognize everything we have – our possessions, our relationships, the creation, even our very lives – as a gift for which we can be constantly and eternally grateful. “Rich toward God” means to acknowledge that all our riches come from God.
This is much more difficult than it sounds. We are bombarded daily by ads telling us we deserve more and have earned more. Much as I love capitalism, it is a system designed around the creation of desire and the encouragement of greed. It is wonderful to be a part of a capitalist economy, but I think that means we have to listen even more closely to Jesus when he warns us to be on guard against all kinds of greed. Greed that says, “you can get a better deal;” greed that says, “you deserve a break today;” greed that says, “you haven’t gotten a fair shake;” greed that creates a problem to solve out of having too much stuff; greed that keeps us talking to ourselves and storing up treasures instead of building relationships and sharing gratitude.
Greed is pervasive, it’s built into our system. And that’s not going away. But what Jesus is doing in Luke’s gospel, and what he’s still doing today, is transforming greedy people into grateful people. Studies have shown that greed is not a fixed condition. Even slight changes to our values and perceptions can transform us. Hearing a story about someone else’s needs. Being confronted with our own mortality. Jesus tells this parable to the man who wants more stuff from his brother, not to shame him, not to condemn him, but to transform him.
And Jesus is still putting stories in our lives to transform us.
When you all hear stories about kids in our school district who need warm winter coats and clothes – you clean out your closets and we deliver overflowing boxes of these items. When you all hear stories about students in Mexico trying to better their lives and communities through education, you pile up school supplies in the fellowship hall. We may all live in a greedy society, but I get to see the overflow of your gratitude all the time.
Maybe one day I’ll give away my sewing machines and leotards. Or maybe I’ll just be grateful to have them. But either way, knowing that they are not mine, really, that those things, like my life, are a loan, a grace, will help me hold things more lightly, not make problems out of them, and live gratefully. May all of us we share gratitude instead of storing up more stuff. And may we be rich toward God as God has been so rich toward us.
To God be all glory forever and ever. Amen.
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